Monday, June 29, 2009

This heat is knocking me out and making all the aches and pains more intense, it is because it is hot humid weather.

If only it were hot and dry think it would be easier and better to cope with, but hot and humid intensifies the MS symptoms.

Shame as I used to love it being hot, the last few days have been agony and at night it gets very late before we can get some relief from the all enveloping sticky heat.

Just got interrupted so have totally lost what I was going to write about which is probably just as well.

Glad I realised on Saturday that it was the sticky heat that was getting to me and not that I had totally inexplicably lost the plot big time.

One of the things I have never been too fond of has been an over concentration on every aspect of every moment in time always thought that over analysing everything meant you would miss out on the moment itself.

Now I realise that there is a middle way that it is good to examine and evaluate what you do but not good to get so stuck in looking at one aspect you do not see more of the whole picture.

In fact you can get so involved in the detail that you can forget anything else including yourself.

The fast progression of the MS makes it difficult for me to nurture good feelings about myself and has meant that my self image has been to hell and back.

Important to have one and one that is not just being an invalid, mind you as invalids go I am well loved and cared for and well nourished.

I am reasonably cheerful, love teasing the dogs gently, mostly pretending that I have thrown the ball or toy.

Love my darling Richie so vey much in awhile he will be in here hoisting me out of bed and under the shower.

Looking forward to that very much and hopefully the shower will refresh me even if only briefly.

Later when I am back in bed I will seek some mental refreshment and stimulation and information by reading some the blogs I follow.

Recently I have come into contact with two people from Trinidad, Sita is in Ontario and Rhapsody Phoenix in Toronto.

Have had the pleasure of bonding with Sita about the pleasure of Trinidad food, we both were remembering the smell of hops bread.

Shame you can not describe a smell, all I can say is it is a unique smell which I can not explain.

The smell of Hops bread is something another Trini will understand very well indeed, a lasting memory of mornings at home in Cascade, Port of Spain and my dad coming back form getting the morning rolls.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

I would like to pass the A Hoy Award to a wonderful new blog and to a wonderful woman.

I am very impressed with this blog and would recommend you take a look.

Celeste Maia@

Maia’s Into the Moonlight.

My name is Celeste Maia. I am a painter, a writer and illustrator of children’s books, a wife, a mother and a grandmother. I was born and grew up in Mozambique and studied in South Africa, France, and the United States. I have shown my work in many countries on four continents. I love to travel, to read, to swim, to listen to introspective music and watch intelligent movies. I am attracted to the color red. I enjoy cooking and eating well, being with friends and having a good laugh. I will be writing about painting and esthetics, living with CLL, food, places I travel to, random thoughts and photographing along the way. I look forward to sharing reflections with you. You can see more about my work and my complete profile at

Please pass to 5 other blogs.Two of those must be new to you.Post and mention who gave you the award with their url.Then go to each blog you pick and ask them to come by your blog and pick up their award.

I'd like to think that receiving A Hoy will be different to most blog awards, because of the stipulation that one makes an onward award to at least two blogs that one has never seen before.

It's a psychological thing.

Suddenly having somebody turn up, out of the blue, and say "your blog's cool: have an award," has significant positive impact.

I know this, because when I receive awards, I make a point of searching for blogs I've never seen, which are "off the beaten track" of stuff that I usually look at, and the responses are worth the extra effort.

This is, I would argue, also beneficial to the giver, because it requires them to think of things that they like - and you'd be surprised how few people think in those terms.

I am married, had 5 children. 4 boys and 1 girl. Oldest is deceased. 9 grandkids,10 great grandkids.I love hearing from people, and have made some true friends on the blog, (I think) I hope. We have a fat beagle named Spunky 5 years old and spoiled rotten, but we are huge dog lovers.

The Bow Award for Outstanding blogs, blogs that inform the mind and expand the horizons.

Please pass to as many other blogs as you like.Post and mention who gave you the award with their url.Then go to each blog you pick and ask them to come by your blog and pick up their award.

Marie@Nourish: Living, Laughing, Winning.I am just like you - on the journey, coping with Multiple Sclerosis, putting one foot in front of the other and trying to find the best way possible to do so, with a little help from my friends.http://nourishourselves.blogspot.com/

Julie@Maybe I'm Just Lazy: One Woman's Journey Through MS and Life In September '07, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. In an effort to maintain my sense of humor while integrating this new reality into my life, I started this blog, which has become my public journal, an opinion column, and a rough draft for my book. MS prompted this project but it's also about life in general. My life, that is. I welcome comments--even the negative ones. They make me think. (Although I think more of those with names attached.)http://lazyjulie.blogspot.com/

Women have taken to the streets of Tehran. This shows the new face of Iran,

Iranian women stand up in defiance,and flout rules.

June 23, 2009.

A young Iranian woman named Neda is gunned down in one of the most iconic images of the last week. Another walks down the street, defiantly showing off her hair and body in a revealing dress. And still another woman says she's not scared of paramilitary forces -- no matter how many times she gets beaten.

Women have taken to the streets of Tehran. "This shows the new face of Iran," one expert says.

‘’ When they want to hit me, I say hit. I have been hit so many times and this time it doesn't matter. I just want to help my brothers and sisters," says the 19-year-old woman whose identity is being withheld by CNN for her safety.

Amid the clashes and chaos, there has been a recurring scene on the streets of Tehran: Women, in their scarves and traditional clothing, at the heart of the struggle.

Some are seen collecting rocks for ammunition against security forces, while video showed one woman trying to protect a fallen pro-government militiaman wounded in the government crackdown.

When security forces come to attack, the 19-year-old woman protester says she looks them in the eye and asks: "Why do you kill your brother? Why do you hit your mother, your sisters?"

"We all tell them, if you're Iranian, you shouldn't do that to your people, to your own country's people," she told CNN by phone.

Watch woman stand up in defiance to power.

But it's the woman known as Neda who has become the symbol of women on the front line that has galvanized opponents of the Iranian regime.

In a widely circulated video, Neda is seen in the middle of protests over the weekend.

She is shot and drops to the ground. Blood runs from the side of her mouth as a few people, including her music professor traveling with her, press on her chest and shout her name.

One pleads, "Do not be afraid. The camera closes in on her face as her eyes roll back and are still.

Karim Sadjadpour, an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the image of Neda and other women at the protests showed the difference from the 1979 revolution. "The iconic pictures from the revolution 30 years ago were bearded men. This shows the new face of Iran -- the young women who are the vanguards of Iran."

Abbas Milani, the director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University, agreed that Neda was becoming a symbol for all the women who have become involved in the turmoil that has followed the disputed election.

"She will become the image of this brutality and the role -- the truly significant role -- that women have played in fighting this regime.

I think that women are the unsung heroes of the last few years. They are the ones who began chipping away the absolute authority of the mullahs."

The protests haven't just been confined to Iran's everyday women. The daughter of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was arrested over the weekend while taking part in a protest. She was later released.

In addition, Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of Mir Hossein Moussavi, whose apparent defeat in Iran's presidential election has sparked the unprecedented demonstrations, campaigned for her husband, an unusual step in politics in Iran. Her public support of his candidacy underscored his professed support for women's rights. Learn more about the timeline of events.

And in another act of defiance, apparently from after the election, a woman who appears to be in her 20s or 30s walks down a street in Tehran, showing off her body in a revealing dress and displaying her long, curly hair. In Iran, women are forbidden to show their hair, and they must keep their bodies covered. "Lady, is it a revolution already?" one female driver says as she passes by.

The 19-year-old demonstrator, who spoke by phone with CNN, says women are out in the streets in much larger numbers than men. She provided CNN with images of paramilitary forces on Saturday confronting protests, just before she was beaten. She says she was beaten again during protests Monday.

"The women are all together and they say, 'We're going to stay here.' There are so more [women] than men," she said, referring to the number of women protesters. "Until now, the women didn't have a chance to express themselves, to say that we are important in our country's future. But now, they can play an important role in our freedom. It's a good chance for us."

Is she optimistic?"I'm absolutely optimistic, because history has taught me that all the revolutions start like this," she said. "Every revolution has violence and some people die, but nothing stays like this forever."

Well summer is bursting out all over hope the temperature does not go too mad as then the MS symptoms go abit mad.

Guess that will mean time to put the fan on constantly.

Have a good day I intend to, Marianne will be around soon with delicious things from the Suriname Snadwich Shop.

Will be getting a roll with pom (stewed chicken and cassava) and one with bakkeljauw (saltfish) and both with lashings of pepper sauce and a tin of sorsop or guava juice.

Really looking forward to it very much.

Best bit about today is that I did not wake up until pleasantly late at 10.30 and then my pain was quickly helped to subside with the application of several bags of thc and the baclofen, arm and leg exercisews and leg massage and a beautiful ripe Pakistani mango.

Richie is making lemonade and the dog biscuits he made earlier are in the oven giving the dogs who are waiting in front of the oven hope that they will get some soon.

She also made rice and peas, with pigeon peas and side dishes of fried plantain and dhal and avocado and chopped cucumber with salt and pepper and vinegar.

Carole had also made my favourite mango pickle, which is mango and salt and pepper and vinegar and there was Matauk’s Pepper Sauce (Trinidad Hot Pepper Sauce)

This was a feast for me like I had not had for ages, this was down home food and after dinner we ate mangos and drunk rum punch and ate hot channas (roasted spiced chick peas) and tamarind balls (tamarind with hot pepper and sugar).

Will never forget this feast, this was such an important event for me when for awhile I felt a real connection with the place I was born.

That was also the summer my half sister’s took me to a Trinidad Gala Dinner and Dance party to celebrate the visit of Sir Garfield Sobers to England.

He had been the West Indian Cricket Team Captain, and was the best cricketer ever.

He was in the country to receive his Knighthood from the Queen.

The party for him was spectacular, Trini food and drinks in abundance plus I was introduced to the great man himself by my sisters and he asked me to dance.

Well Wow! I danced with Gary Sobers, the best cricketer ever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garfield_Sobers

These two things gave me back a tiny part of my Trinidad identity and in 1997 when I got back to my Little Island in the Sun I discovered it was really as beautiful as I remembered and still remember.